The Sh’ma Project for Holocaust and Human Rights Art and Education
Suki John is working to recreate her evening-length dance work, or choreodrama, Sh’ma. Through the language of emotion, Sh’ma tells the story of one family’s experience in the Holocaust. Based on her mother’s harrowing journey from yellow star to deportation, concentration camp to refugee camp, stateless teen to American citizen, Suki originally choreographed Sh’ma in the former Yugoslavia. Not long afterwards, the horrific tragedy of the Bosnian war impelled Suki to tell her mother’s story again in New York, as new “Never Agains” reverberated across the globe. The ballet is being reimagined for the present moment, with an emphasis on reaching out to young viewers.
The Sh’ma Project is being designed as an artistic educational event. Suki will bring students and educators from Texas Christian University, professional dancers, and designers together with audiences across Texas. Special in-performance projections will help the viewers understand personal stories, historic context, and the action onstage. Student audiences will participate in pre and post-performance workshops, building a cohort to creatively address issues of antisemitism, exclusion, and othering.
We need your help to make this happen with the best dancers, educators and designers we can find! Suki is trying to raise the funds to pay the dancers for their hard work. Please contact TJAA if you would like to support this effort.
The Sh’ma Project is more than an artistic educational project, it’s a movement against hate.
We need your help to make this happen with the best dancers, educators and designers we can find! Suki is trying to raise the funds to pay the dancers for their hard work. Please contact TJAA if you would like to support this effort.
The Sh’ma Project is more than an artistic educational project, it’s a movement against hate.
Photos by The Dancing Image
If you would like to help make The Sh’ma Project for Holocaust and Human Rights Art and Education happen in Texas, please contact us here: info@texasjewisharts.org
Suki John, PhD
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An Associate Professor in the School for Classical & Contemporary Dance at Texas Christian University, Suki has worked internationally as a dance artist and scholar -- teaching, choreographing, and writing about the intersections between dance, history and culture. She has performed with the London Festival Ballet (under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev), The Joffrey Upstarts, Jennifer Muller, Sara Sugihara, Rachel Lampert, Living Art International, Dance Company Narciso Medina, The Horse’s Mouth, People’s Theater of Yugoslavia, and Route 66 Dance Company. Suki has choreographed for Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Danza Contemporánea de Cuba, Snug Harbor/Staten Island Center for the Arts, Narciso Medina, Danza Espiral, Ritmo Flamenco, Culture Project, Connecticut Repertory Theater, Adelphi University, Cuba’s Superior Institute of the Arts, NYU, TCU and the University of New Mexico. She founded Cuban Arts Match to unite Cuban and North American artists, and dance2degrees, to bring attention to climate change.
Suki is now focusing on her evening-length choreodrama, Sh'Ma. Based on her family’s experience in the Holocaust, Suki has staged Sh’ma in Europe and New York, and shown excerpts at the New York Festival of Jewish Culture, YIVO, B’Nai Jeshrun, Fort Monmouth Army Base, and the Dallas Museum of Biblical Arts. She is recreating Sh’ma in Texas as part of The Sh’ma Project for Holocaust and Human Rights Art and Education. |
